’Til the World Ends

by Julie Kagawa, Ann Aguirre, Karen Duvall

  Just not Al or Elodie. Please.

  That was my biggest fear. With effort, I put it aside. Despite the odds over the years, I had kept us all alive and together. This was just a minor setback.

  Yeah, right.

  At various vendors, Thorne traded for supplies in a hurry. I nudged him. “Can you afford to keep going like this?”

  “I won’t have much left by the time we’re done. But it’s worth it.”

  Yeah, he’d have Stavros’s resources to call on then. I wished that didn’t make me so sad; it seemed as if Thorne had the potential to do more, but in this world, what was there, apart from survival? Sure, there was a man who ran a mission in Snake Ward—and he had been robbed and beaten more times than I could count. Oddly, it didn’t seem to discourage him. He just kept returning to his calling, which was what he dubbed it, and even the worst offenders didn’t hurt him seriously because if they did, he wouldn’t be able to gather supplies for them to steal. Which made no sense to me, given that he offered them freely to anyone in need. Some folks couldn’t accept charity, but they could take from the weak...and that was a testament to how screwed up the world was.

  Gunshots rang out, breaking up my thoughts. Bullets were rare enough that people panicked, packing their trade goods in wild haste. Precious resources fell to the ground, crushed and discarded. A woman screamed as a stray round hit her. Her man scooped her into his arms and tried to run, but the crowd got in his way. I couldn’t see the shooter, but I knew who’d sent him.

  “Stavros,” I said. “How did he find us so fast?”

  Thorne shook his head, deferring the question. “We have to get out of this mob.”

  For more than one reason. We were in danger of being trampled, but if people died here, because of us, it would haunt me. They hadn’t made a decision to fight Stavros; they only wanted to exchange what they had for things they needed. I hated that the bossman would sacrifice innocents to bring us in. Maybe he thought if the cost grew too high, we’d surrender. On my own, I might, but not when Al and Elodie depended on me to keep them safe.

  His face grim, Thorne grabbed my hand and towed me behind him, as fast as his sore knee let him. Resting it had helped, but he didn’t move as fast as he had the first time he’d chased me. Good thing we were running toward somebody instead of away. The bad part? We were heading for a man with a gun.

  I saw the enemy before Thorne, and I pulled on his hand. “Get down!” We dropped behind some rubble as a barrage of bullets hit the broken concrete. “Tell me you have a plan.”

  “I don’t intend to die today, but that’s not so much a plan as a goal.”

  From the other direction, more gunfire cracked; cries followed. There was a surreal quality about listening to a panicked mob you couldn’t see. I wished I could help those people, but it was beyond my power. They had to look out for themselves.

  “He’s got friends,” I muttered.

  “Knowing Stavros, I’d be surprised if he didn’t.”

  “Do you still have the gun we looted from the first crew?” I asked.

  “I’m not shooting into the crowd, though.”

  That was reassuring. “What now?”

  He leaned back. “Stay sharp and wait for them to come to us.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Thorne’s plan made sense.

  Charging men with deadly weapons didn’t seem like the smartest move. Yet the wait was beyond frightening. I watched one side of the makeshift blockade while Thorne scanned the other. Unless they came straight over the top, which I didn’t think was possible, we should have time to attack. That wasn’t my strong suit, and Thorne was injured. But maybe the bad guys didn’t know about his leg. We hadn’t left survivors to tell, last time.

  I heard the vendors fleeing; the guns fell quiet. No point in wasting bullets since we’d left line of sight. Over my thundering pulse, I detected footfalls crunching over chunks of cement, scraping over the pavement. Thorne shot me a look, questioning, and I nodded. I wouldn’t get any readier.

  They tried to come in quiet, but rubble made it impossible. Thorne wheeled around and shot one of them in the gut. Another circled, but I wasn’t there. I moved fast, already laying hands on the blade I’d taken from the hideout. Using the concrete as cover, I crept around; I had more experience with stealth. Not with violence, however. That didn’t stop me from pricking my knife at the base of his spine.

  “If you move,” I said softly, “I paralyze you.”

  “Which would be awful luck if I didn’t have a gun to your head.”

  Dammit. There were three of them. Thorne had taken out one, and I’d stopped another. Fear lurched up into my throat like a sickness, but somehow I kept my trembling to a minimum. I’d never been in this position before. Never angered a bossman this way...and these were just his henchmen.

  “How did you find us?” I asked, buying time.

  “I can read street sign, too. It stood to reason you needed supplies.”

  Great, so he wasn’t a dumb gun monkey.

  He went on, “Drop the knife, little girl.”

  “I don’t think so. If you shoot me, reflex might make me stab into this guy’s spine anyway. I like the idea of taking somebody with me when I go. If he can’t walk, he can’t fight well enough to please Stavros. I don’t see that ending well.” To emphasize my point, I pressed the blade harder, deep enough to draw blood.

  The thug whined, “I think she’s serious.”

  “So am I,” the other one replied.

  I couldn’t even get a glimpse of Thorne. The gut-shot goon moaned, and blood scented the smoky air with a copper sweetness, like pennies on a fire. There was nothing anybody could do; Thorne had been cruel in his aim since his victim could linger for days in agony and sweating fever as the wound went putrid and he rotted from the inside out.

  Come on, make a move, somebody.

  Thorne said, “She won’t back down. I’ve never seen her drop something when she sinks her teeth into it.” He gave odd emphasis to back and drop.

  If I was wrong, I was dead. I didn’t hesitate; I couldn’t, or fear would get the best of me. I slammed my head into my captor’s chin, slashed the knife sideways along the other guy’s back, and then I dove to the ground. In the same instant, a shot rang out. I heard a thump behind me. The cocky guy was dead, and the one I’d wounded had his hands where we could see them.

  “Look,” he said. “I don’t want to go out like them. This is just a flesh wound.” He cut me a look. “Hurts like a bitch, but I’ll be fine. No hard feelings. I’ll get out of Snake Ward.”

  Having failed Stavros, he didn’t have a choice at this point. I let that go as I grabbed the gun. Though he had a bleeding slash on his back, this guy might not be out of the fight. The man took a step toward me, hands out as if to make peace. But he might be playing us, pretending cooperation while getting close enough to do some damage. I brought the revolver up. We made a decent team. Two of them were dead; we weren’t. Sometimes that was the best-case scenario.

  “I don’t think so,” I answered. “Thorne?”

  “Take three steps away from her.” He pushed to his feet and stood so it wasn’t apparent he was walking wounded.

  The goon complied. “I was just trying—”

  “Save it. The only way you walk out of here is if you agree to carry a message to Stavros.”

  “That’s the same as dying!”

  “Pick one,” Thorne said. “Now or later?”

  I didn’t intervene. Maybe I should have. But I watched and waited, my gun hand steady. I’d never fired one, but I understood the principle, and at this range, I’d hit the guy. Even if my aim wasn’t lethal, a bullet couldn’t be good for you.

  “Screw this.” A sudden lunge carried the thug toward Thorne, and I reacted. The gun jerked more than I expected, so I ended up shooting him in the leg.

  He dropped with a groan, hands on the bloody wound. “You think this is over? Stavros will just keep sending people. Other
s can read street sign, too, so we’ll find you...or you can go hungry. I doubt anybody would care if you starve to death—”

  Thorne ended the tirade with a casual jab of his thumb into the bullet hole. “Do I have your attention now?”

  An agonized nod.

  “Excellent. You tell Stavros it doesn’t matter how many men he hires. It won’t end until he faces me. Which he’s too chickenshit to do. He hasn’t fought for this ward in ten years.”

  “Fine, I’ll tell him. Then he’ll shoot me. Again.”

  “Maybe it’s time you considered a change of career,” I suggested.

  If looks could kill, I’d be a steaming pile of ashes on the ground. “You won’t live through this. Thorne’s never been known for his constancy. He’ll get bored. Tired of you. And people will remember the things you helped him do. What’re you gonna do when he’s not around, protecting you?”

  The same thing I’ve always done. Survive.

  Before I could answer, the guy continued, mockingly, “And it’s only gonna get worse. See, Stavros has a warning for you, too—he knows about those kids you got hidden away. He’s coming for them.”

  My whole body iced over.

  Chapter Thirteen

  How could he? I’d worked so hard to keep my two lives separate.

  Thorne shut him up with a bullet to the face. Shock reverberated through me, even as I stared down at the ruined skull. No more taunting words would ever come out of his mouth. Nor could I ask anything about Stavros’s plans, what he knew of Al and Elodie. Until this point, I had done well at keeping my family away from the attention of people who meant them harm. To the men I worked for, I was a ghost. No ties. Hardly even a person, more of a collection of useful skills.

  “He was just mouthing off.” Thorne tucked the gun away, remarkably composed. “Taking a shot in the dark.”

  I rounded on him. “If he was making a wild guess, it was pretty damn specific. And I thought you needed him to carry a message.”

  “I could see he was getting to you.”

  “So you killed him? That’s crazy.” But I didn’t care enough about the dead man to debate it further. His words rang in my head.

  He’s coming for them.

  I turned. Before I ran four steps, Thorne’s hands clamped onto my upper arms; I fought him. I could think only of getting to the hidey-hole to check on Al and Elodie. They were counting on me, and while Nat kicked squatter ass, she might not fare well against more determined, better-armed foes. I couldn’t let anything happen to her, Irena or my sibs.

  He gave me a little shake. “This is exactly what Stavros wants. You think he doesn’t have others nearby? I doubt these three are the only ones he sent after us.”

  “Why? Why not just end it?”

  “Leverage,” he answered. “He thinks I care about you. So if he gets his hands on the people you love, then he hurts me more than if he just shot me.”

  “So he wants to make you suffer for challenging him?”

  He shrugged in easy acknowledgment. “He’d make it last months if he could.”

  “I have to see them, just to be sure.” I pulled against his hold, feeling the bruises form on my biceps.

  “That’s the dumbest thing we could do. Don’t let him play you.”

  I curled my hands into fists and yanked away from him on the second try. “Easy for you to say. You don’t care about anything but this grudge.”

  He cut me a cold look. “That wasn’t always true. What do you think started this war?”

  “I did,” I said stupidly.

  Thorne shook his head, dropping his hands away from me. “Never mind. Look, if you’re determined to go, I won’t stop you. I can finish this on my own.”

  “So if I leave, you’re done with me?”

  “You make it sound like we had more than a temporary partnership.”

  Dammit. I had, and I hadn’t intended to. Not like that, anyway.

  “I just meant, this has to play out your way, from A to Z, or you’re out?”

  “I’m not taking idiotic risks because you let some burner get in your head. The only way this ends for me is with a truce from Stavros’s men and his dead body on the ground.”

  “What did he do to you anyway?”

  “Killed my mother.” But his mocking eyes said that wasn’t the real reason, and he wasn’t sharing, either. Our limited alliance only went so far. “So you tell me, Mari, are you going to be smart? Or do I ride off alone?”

  “Do you get how hard this is?” I implored him for understanding.

  “Inaction feels like abandoning your family when they need you most.”

  So he did grasp the crux of the matter. “And you still advise me not to go to them?”

  “If he knows where they are, it’s already too late. Therefore, I think that was a bluff. He’s hoping you’ll show him the way, by reacting just like this.”

  Already too late. My stomach lurched.

  “You give a shitty pep talk.”

  “You wouldn’t thank me for lying.”

  It was true; I wouldn’t. If he promised me everything would work out, and then it all exploded, I’d have to kill him. This way, anything bad that happened was on my shoulders. He couldn’t guarantee the goon had been bluffing. Stavros might have Al and Elodie already. But if he didn’t, and I led him right to them, I’d never forgive myself.

  Damn, this is too hard.

  “How do you think he found out about them?” I asked as I considered.

  “They broke somebody on your block.”

  Dammit. I hoped it wasn’t Edgar or Seline. “I wish there was some way to check in without going in person.”

  Thorne flashed me a wry look. “Yeah, it’d be nice. Unfortunately...”

  “Let’s go.” The decision burned, buzzing an angry futility in the back of my head.

  Still, I led the way toward his moto, parked safely across the square. If the henchmen had been smart, they would’ve shot it instead of firing into the crowd. If they took out his bike, then they crippled us. So far, our survival had hinged on mobility, and Stavros was getting faster at hunting us down. He must be blowing through favors. Thorne climbed on, and I swung aboard behind him, strapped on my helmet and then saw the dark stain on his upper arm.

  “You’re bleeding,” I said.

  The engine purred to life. “Just a graze. They got me on a ricochet as we were running.”

  “You didn’t say anything.” His stoicism astonished me. His knee had to be hurting, and he’d just been shot. If toughness alone could carry him through, he’d kick Stavros’s ass.

  “Why, would you have kissed it better?”

  “If you could reassure me that Al and Elodie are all right, I’d kiss anything.”

  “Really?” He drawled the word as the bike jerked into motion.

  A hot flush suffused me. “That might’ve been an overstatement.”

  “No, the offer’s on the table. Now let me counter.”

  Despite my worry, a zing of awareness pierced me. I was conscious of how I was pressed up against his back, arms around his waist. We had spent the past few days practically joined at the hip, and proximity often resulted in attraction. I couldn’t afford a deep, dark well of a man like Thorne, but logic didn’t block my reaction to him altogether.

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’ll find someone to check on them for you, someone Stavros won’t know to follow. It’s the best I can do at the moment.”

  It was, frankly, more than I expected, and the tension eased out of me. “Deal.”

  “You’re not even going to ask what I want in return?”

  Then I felt stupid, taking his joke at face value. Of course he didn’t need to bargain for sexual favors. “What?”

  He flashed me an enigmatic look over one shoulder. “I’ll tell you when the time comes.”

  Oh, that didn’t bode well for me at all.

  Chapter Fourteen

  According to Thorne’s contacts, th
e kids were fine.

  Which meant the goon had been bluffing, as predicted. Stavros might know about Al and Elodie, but he wouldn’t live long enough to use the knowledge. His men had turned; this was the pivotal moment in Snake Ward.

  Relief swept me, even as I listened to the offer. It came from the same guy who had looked in on Al and Elodie, carrying the message from Stavros’s people.

  “Henry wants to meet.”

  This was what we had been waiting for. I shifted against the wall, exhausted beyond bearing. No question but these had been the longest days of my life. I had lived on the back of Thorne’s bike, catching sleep in corners and crevices, moving on before I felt rested. Others might thrive on chaos and conflict—not me. I missed my routine and seeing my sibs every morning. By the time I got back, I was gonna owe Nat so big I’d never be able to repay her.

  “He can set the time and place,” Thorne said. “As long as it looks clean, I’ll be there.”

  “It’s not a trap. I’ll leave word in the usual place.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked after the courier left.

  “I have a system. Notes left, answers retrieved. It’s safe.”

  A day later, he was proved right when we set up a meeting at the border of Snake Ward and Junkland, far from Stavros’s HQ—and out of the way enough—that nobody should catch Henry parlaying with the enemy. So weird to think of myself in those terms; I had spent so many years just trying to get by, but now there was no question I’d become one of the powers in the zone. Going forward, people would know who I was outside my neighborhood, and that might make my life more complicated.

  Still, I couldn’t fret about that when we were on the downhill run. Against the odds we had stayed alive long enough to get Stavros’s men to flip on him. To make the day even better, Thorne found a place for us to clean up. It wasn’t much, a public bathhouse, where an enterprising old woman sold purified rainwater, homemade soap and buckets, but after so long, I took it gladly. While he kept watch, I washed up, then donned a clean outfit. My clothes were all dark, nondescript, well-suited for my line of work, but not all of them smelled so ripe.